[[link removed]]

THE CDC CRISIS AND REPUBLICAN COMPLICITY  
[[link removed]]


 

Robert Kuttner
August 29, 2025
The American Prospect
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Today on TAP: Will the destruction of the Centers for Disease
Control finally push the Republican Congress to constrain Trump’s
science deniers? _

Dr. Demetre Daskalakis talks to reporters as workers and supporters
rally for departing scientific leaders outside the CDC headquarters,
August 28, 2025, in Atlanta., Ben Gray/AP Photo

 

Sometimes, events turn on the bravery of ordinary people. On Thursday,
hundreds of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) demonstrated outside their agency, all risking their
jobs, to give a grateful send-off to three senior officials who had
finally had enough and resigned in protest.

The three were Dr. Daniel Jernigan, who headed the center that
oversees new diseases and vaccine safety; Dr. Debra Houry, the
agency’s chief medical officer; and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, an
infectious disease specialist who led the center that reviews
respiratory illnesses such as COVID and issues vaccine
recommendations.

These senior scientists were the heart of the CDC. All objected to
statements by new members of the agency’s vaccine advisory panel,
which made clear that they would try to reduce access to several
vaccines. “It really is transparent that these decisions have all
been predestined,” Dr. Daskalakis said.

The advisory panel, which includes several science deniers newly
appointed by anti-vax Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., is scheduled to meet in mid-September. Its agenda
includes votes on recommendations for COVID, hepatitis B, RSV
vaccines, and the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella
vaccine. The administration has already set back vaccine science by
withdrawing funding for new mRNA vaccine development
[[link removed]].

The Food and Drug Administration has approved new COVID vaccines
[[link removed]]
for people over age 65, or younger people who have an underlying
medical condition that puts them at risk. This makes COVID vaccines
less available for the first time since the outbreak. But the CDC
advisory panel must add its recommendations, and could roll access
back even further.

On Thursday, anticipating the shifts and proving the point, CVS, the
nation’s largest drug chain, announced that it was temporarily not
offering COVID vaccines
[[link removed]],
even to elderly people and others at special risk, in 16 states and
the District of Columbia, citing “the current regulatory
environment.” In some states, pharmacists may not administer
vaccines not approved by the CDC.

For the three who resigned, the last straw was the firing of CDC
director Susan Monarez, a government scientist confirmed by the Senate
only in July. She served barely a month. She was fired after she
resisted RFK Jr.’s pressure to change vaccine policy and to fire
senior staff. Her attorneys have challenged the legality of her
firing.

In a public letter of resignation, Dr. Daskalakis wrote
[[link removed]]:
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to
generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality
and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.
The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule
threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people …
My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in
Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his
legacy proud.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not address any of
the substantive issues raised by the three who resigned, but whined
[[link removed]]
that Dr. Daskalakis “identifies pregnant women as ‘pregnant
people,’ so that’s not someone who we want in this
administration.” This makes clear once again that the right’s
version of politically correct language trumps science.

The CDC had already been reeling from cuts in April that closed down
entire divisions and laid off thousands of people, including Dr.
Jonathan Mermin, who served as director of the CDC’s center for HIV
and sexually transmitted infections.

If anyone has blood on his hands from the latest turn of events, it is
Louisiana’s Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who cast a decisive vote
to confirm RFK Jr. to head the CDC, even though Cassidy, a physician,
was well aware that Kennedy is a crackpot. On Thursday, Cassidy put
out a statement calling for cancellation of the vaccine committee’s
September meeting.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda,
membership, and lack of scientific process,” said Cassidy, who
chairs the Senate Health Committee. “If the meeting proceeds, any
recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given
the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC
leadership.”

The Senate Finance Committee has a previously scheduled oversight
session with Kennedy on September 4. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has
called for a full investigation. Will the courage of the CDC staff and
the plain political risks of the debacle inspire any Republicans to
demand the ouster of Kennedy and the restoration of science to protect
the public’s health?

* Center for Disease Control Resignations; Robert Kennedy; Trump
Presidency;
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]